Star Trek: Resurgence – Alien Diplomacy R Us

So, how about this! A new Star Trek game that is actually good. Well, as far as the story goes at least, and the presentation overall. It is lacking in the gameplay department, but what else can be expected from a studio consisting of former Telltale employees? Star Trek: Resurgence is Dramatic Lab’s first game, and to nobody’s surprise the gaming aspect remains as mentioned limited, however, it comes with severely upgraded visuals. Gone is the heavily penciled-in comic book style and is now replaced with full Unreal 3D glory with a semi-realistic approach. To truly enjoy Star Trek: Resurgence it all comes down to personal expectations (as usual), so the sane approach (which I took) is to leave any form of system interaction at the door going in. And if you can do that, you are in for a pretty good time!

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Miasma Chronicles – Quick Impressions

I was going to do a proper review of Miasma Chronicles since the combat and the world seemed interesting enough. However, the further I got into the game, the more apparent it becomes that it suffers from some seriously baffling design decisions. This cut my game time rather short as I just can’t be bothered with this type of gameplay anymore. I will explain.

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Stasis: Bone Totem – Atlantean Rumble

What do you get if combine meaty body horror, Lovecraft, and Atlantean mythology sprinkled with Blade Runner, The Descent, and Alien? Well, you get Stasis: Bone Totem. This is the Brotherhood’s third game in the Stasis franchise – a point & click horror adventure series that doesn’t shy away from showing the macabre and the gruesome in all its glory. So far, so good, and you can read the thoughts of the developers in an interview I made with them here. However, it saddens me to say, that there are some problems with this title. While it maintains the horror in both atmosphere and story, the game falters and stumbles in the feature most critical to gaming: the gameplay.

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Solasta: Crown of the Magister [DLC] Palace of Ice – Soraks Forever

The evil Soraks are back, and they are meaner and greener than ever! Palace of Ice is another story DLC for Solasta: Crown of the Magister. Unlike Lost Valley, this one is a direct continuation of the original campaign instead of being a standalone adventure. This means that you get the chance to import your old dungeon-crawling crew if you still got the save file laying around. I had to start up an old computer of mine to find the save as it was a long time since I played it. And thank the Lord I found it. The thought of going through the main campaign again just to experience Palace of Ice would have been very demoralizing. Not that the main adventure is all bad, but one take was enough for me. And yes, you are allowed to create a new party, but my weird gaming autism would have prevented me from doing so.

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Star Wars Jedi Survivor – Master of Parkour

In my Quick Impressions of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, I wasn’t very impressed by the game, but I went back in and to my surprise, I started to enjoy myself… a bit at least. The things I brought up in that post still stand, though. Actually, things get worse from that point on. It becomes even more “anime” and absurd, with the addition of another problem: a disconnect from story to gameplay, and vice versa. The story and cut-scenes are presented rather realistic within the setting, however, the gameplay turns crazier and crazier the further you get into the story. Hence the disconnect, and to me this is usually immersion shattering, especially when cut-scenes dictate how my character acts. Like when taking a wound, but just moments before I could eat blaster fire all day. The game is filled with issues like this, and this is on top of the things I already mentioned in my quick impressions.

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